CSA approves plans to restructure domestic cricket

Cape Town [South Africa], Apr 8 (ANI): Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Monday approved plans to expand six domestic franchises to 12 provincial teams from May 2020.
The plan would bring a fundamental change to the domestic cricket as it would effectively be the death of the franchise system.
CSA CEO Thabang Moroe confirmed that the South Africa board's revised losses sit at R350 million for the last four years and that the proposed restructure was part of the solution to turn the tide in the next four years, Sport24 reported.
The board will now consult with the franchises as well as the South African Cricketers Association (SACA) before moving forward with the plan.
"We have a three-phased process where we'll see CSA go back to 12 provinces and we plan in the third year to either have Limpopo, Mpumalanga -- or both -- become part of the first-class structure, which will take us to the 14-member competition," Moroe said.
"Franchise cricket has been a huge burden to CSA's coffers. We’re pinning most of our work and commercial strategy on the Mzansi Super League to be the programme that’s actually going to fund domestic cricket," the CSA CEO added.
Meanwhile, General Manager Cricket of CSA Corrie van Zyl announced the termination of the T20 Challenge, which is currently ongoing.
"Obviously with us collapsing the franchise system into the senior provincial system, you’ll have lesser competition costs associated with the competitions," van Zyl said.
"Next year, we'll already be saving because of the termination of the T20 Challenge. From May 2020, we'll be moving to a 12-affiliate first-class structure, which enables us to have a saving," van Zyl said.
"From a cricket perspective, the strength versus strength was very important. In our plan we’ll structure the new competition in such a way that we’ve strength versus strength, eventually getting to an A and B section at first-class level," van Zyl added.
The six franchises currently playing in the domestic cricket are the Cape Cobras, Warriors, Dolphins, Knights, Highveld Lions, and Titans. While, the 14 semi-professional provinces include Western Province, Boland, South Western Districts, Eastern Province, Border, KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Free State, Northern Cape, Gauteng, Northerns, Easterns, North West and Mpumalanga. (ANI)